Thursday, July 16, 2015

My oldest child is away at Boy Scout camp all week. He's gone to the mountains of South Carolina and doing Boy Scout things, working on his certifications and he tells me he's going to advance three levels on his quest to Eagle Scout while he's there. He has a really wonderful group of guys he's with and I can remember my own days at camp well enough to know that he's having a great time.

We had originally told him we weren't coming for Family Night. It's way up in the mountains in SC almost to NC, almost touching TN also. But we decided to surprise him so I took off early yesterday and northeast we went. It was serendipity that as we pulled up he just happened to come walking by.

He's bunking with his buddy, and despite the fact that the radar showed DOOOOOOM two nights ago (that was the official forecast) he says it just rained some, no big deal. I can't express my relief enough, let's just say I was more than a little worried and had trouble sleeping. No I'm not over protective at all why?

Julia was incredibly excited to see Louis and shortly after she decided she was going back down the hill for flag ceremony with all of the boys, she then fell and skinned her knee and had to come back. I'm told she screamed "I NEED MY PARENTS." Which is very oddly funny to me.

When the boys came back it was pizza time, a meal for everyone to enjoy together. Not exactly simple camping fair but easy.

Miles started having a bit of a meltdown as soon as the boys went to flag ceremony. We stayed up at the campsite thankfully. I regretted not going for a moment but after his meltdown progressed into full on crazy tantrum (for no apparent reason) I was glad we weren't below embarrassing Louis.

A meal seemed to change everyone's demeanor greatly, Julia was the only person who ate three pieces of pizza. That cracks me up since most of the boys are in high school. After dinner it was time for some Frisbee or HISBEE as Julia keeps calling it. She was ECSTATIC because the boys let her play with them and they all cheered for her every time, even when she missed.

While the boys all played frisbee and hung out, the adults started a big tub of ice cream. The scouts all took turns making it and since we had a lot of kids, we had a lot of participation in the turning of the crank.

Making ice cream was nearly as much fun as playing hisbee from what I can tell. Not quite as much fun as eating it, however.

Everyone was a pretty darn big fan. I even remembered not to cuss while I was there, I was pretty proud of myself.

I said DANGIT like 50 times. Also DANG. I think I'm gonna start sighing the word "SUG" (as in sugar) like Dale's wife on King of the Hill as a swear and expression of frustration.

He's coming home Friday instead of Saturday - I think because bad storms are forecast for the weekend. I'm sad he's losing a day but glad he's home earlier. I know it's been a week of freedom and learning for him. He's not the kid who has to help take care of his disabled siblings, or who has to help watch his wild child baby sister, he's just Louis for a solid week. He's solo, single, a solitary unit in the world without all of the responsibilities of his normal day to day life.